René Pellarin, who signed his work Pellos, was a French comic artist and sports cartoonist, best known in the comics field for the futuristic saga 'Futurpolis' and for taking over the classic series 'Les Pieds Nickelés', which was created by Louis Forton. Born in Lyon, he studied Fine Arts in Geneva and started his career at the age of 16, as an illustrator for the Swiss humorous magazine Le Gugusse. In 1930, he settled in Paris, where he became a sports illustrator for magazines like Match L'Intransigeant, Les Cahiers de la France Sportive, Sport Digest, Miroir-Sprint, Sport Sélection and Sport-Mondial, until well into the 1960s. He also worked as a cartoonist for several journals and weeklies, including Paris-Soir Dimanche, Le Petit Parisien, Le Dauphin Libéré and L'Aurore.
By the end of the 1930s, he also took up creating comic stories, starting with 'Monsieur Petipon' in Jeunesse Magazine (1937) and later Pierrot. In 1937 he also created his science fiction saga 'Futuropolis', which ran in magazin Junior until 1938. Another notable series by Pellos is the jungle comic 'Durga Rani', which was presented as a series of drawing with accompanying text written by Jean Sylvère, and published in Fillette between 1946 and 1953.
Les Cinq Sous de Lavarède
Over the years, Pellos has collaborated as a comic artist with a great many magazines, including L'Épatant and L'As ('Les Cinq Sous de Lavarède', 1939-40, a text comic based on the 1939 film comedy starring Fernandel), Jean-Pierre ('Electropolis', intended as the continuation of 'Futuropolis', 1940), Le Journal de Toto (1940), Jumbo (1941-42), Robinson (1942-44), Le Journal de Mickey (a.o. 'Bizut Sportif', 1941-43), Paris-Jeunes (1946), France-Soir Jeudi (1946-47), Zorro (a.o. 'La Guerre du Feu', 1947-54), Mon Journal ('Atomas', 1948), Zig et Puce (1950), Coeurs Vaillants (1950-51), Sport Junior (1950-51), Équipe Junior (1951-52), Coq Hardi Je Serai, Fripounet et Marisette (1955), Bibi Fricotin (1955-63), Ima (1957), Scout (1958), Vaillant (1958), L'Intrépide (1961), Pilote (1967-68), Haga (1974) and Neutron (1980).
However, Pellos gained most fame as the artist who took over 'Les Pieds Nickelés', a series about three vagabonds created by Louis Forton. He modernized the series and published it, often in cooperation with scriptwriter Montaubert, in magazines like Le Journal des Pieds Nickelés, L'Épatant, Joyeuse Lecture-Les Pieds Nickelés, Pschitt Junior-Les Pieds Nickelés, Pieds Nickelés Magazine and Trio, between 1948 and 1981.
André Citroen (Coq Hardi Je Serai, 1955)
In the 1990s, Jean-Paul Tibéri founded "Les Amis de Pellos". am association for repblishing Pellos' work. Tiberi published two books about the author, 'Pellos, Dessinateur Sportif' (1985) and 'Main d'Or et Pieds Nickelés' (1992). René Pellos was one of the greatest French comic artists, and one of the few who has bridged generations. Pellos died in 1998.
He was an influence on André Chéret, François Craenhals, René Hausman and Jean Tabary. Pellos' version of 'Les Pieds Nickelés' was made into a porn parody by Roger Brunel in 'Pastiches 1' (1980).
